Page "Poetry" Paragraph 48

In many languages, including modern European languages and Arabic, poets use rhyme in set patterns as a structural element for specific poetic forms, such as ballads, sonnets and rhyming couplets.

However, the use of structural rhyme is not universal even within the European tradition.

Much modern poetry avoids traditional rhyme schemes.

Classical Greek and Latin poetry did not use rhyme.

Rhyme entered European poetry in the High Middle Ages, in part under the influence of the Arabic language in Al Andalus ( modern Spain ).

Arabic language poets used rhyme extensively from the first development of literary Arabic in the sixth century, as in their long, rhyming qasidas.

Some rhyming schemes have become associated with a specific language, culture or period, while other rhyming schemes have achieved use across languages, cultures or time periods.

Some forms of poetry carry a consistent and well-defined rhyming scheme, such as the chant royal or the rubaiyat, while other poetic forms have variable rhyme schemes.